The federal government on Thursday denounced the low number of COVID-19 tests conducted so far across the country, saying that the maximum states have not yet fully applied the existing testing capability.
He also said that lately he ran to ensure that priority was given to the 85 local government areas (LGA), where no testing was conducted, as he planned to create at least one pattern collection site on the country’s 774 councils.
The Minister of State of Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, at the briefing of the Presidential Working Group on COVID-19 in Abuja, he said: “To date, more than 70% of all tests conducted have been conducted in nine states, adding Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo O Riversgun with 25 of the tests in Lagos alone we will continue to work with state governments to expedite case-gathering and pattern collection activities.
“This pandemic has had an effect on our other young people. As yesterday, 46% of the positive cases in the country are other young people between the ages of 21 and 40. Therefore, I will ask our other young people to make sure we comply with the recommendations of wearing the mask properly, washing our hands and ensuring some respiratory hygiene.
He added: “We are involved in the resurgence of infection among fitness care staff. For the progress we have made in reducing the infection rate among our fitness staff, we have trained and recycled fitness staff in infection prevention and control.
“In Abia state, we have completed the 594 fitness education of personal and public fitness services on infection prevention and control. Lately we are investigating a fitness-related infection at a gym in Kaduna state.
“Lessons learned will be used to improve service delivery. I inspire our fitness staff not to let their guards down because the pandemic is with us. Use your PPE appropriately and prudently. We have ensured that the PPE is available in all our facility exercises. “
Elsie Ilori, head of epidemiology at the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), said in her speech: “According to our national strategy, we have expanded our ability to compare control laboratories nationwide. To date, there are 63 laboratories testing COVID-19 in the country.
“We have taken advantage of the merits of existing laboratories in the country, adding other disease laboratories and personal laboratories, to set up those laboratories. In addition to the accessibility and advanced response time for our results, our purpose is to expand the national capacity we have obtained we have also taken over the configuration of pattern collection sites.
“However, our current scenario is that our test labs are underutilized. That’s because we collect enough samples for our labs to test.”